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Backing up audiobooks to CD

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Q: I seem to have successfully copied part one of a Twilight audiobook that I purchased from iTunes onto CDs - purely as protection against losing it if there is a problem with my PC. However, the process has already used several CDs and I have not even started on part two. Is there a way to “save” audiobooks without using so many CDs?

- Elizabeth

A: It sounds like you’re probably burning your audiobooks to actual audio CDs. In this case, you would be able to actually listen to them on any CD player, but as you’ve observed it will potentially take a lot of CDs, since an audio CD only holds up to 80 minutes of audio playback.

Since you’re only burning the audiobooks for backup purposes, you can save CDs by burning them to a Data CD instead. To do this, simply select “Data CD” from the dialog box that appears when you begin burning your audiobook to CD.

This will simply copy the audiobook files directly onto CD in their original format, and in fact you will probably be able to fit both part 1 and part 2 on a single data CD. You will need to reimport these files back into iTunes to play them again, but at least you’ll have them backed up.